plenty of room inside to accommodate all but the tallest of drivers ...

What's It Like to Live With

Both the front and rear doors open to near 90 degrees which makes getting in and out of the Optima easy, the cills are quite low, although you have to step slightly down but once in getting the ideal driving position is easy due in part to the electric driver’s seat with two memories. Some shorter driver’s may find themselves having to lean out to shut the driver’s door but this is of course relative to your reach. This spec features leather seats, with the driver’s and front passenger seats being two stage electrically heated.

There is plenty of room inside to accommodate all but the tallest of drivers, although rear seat passengers may find the swooping rear roof line intrusive.

All round vision is hampered by the Optima styling, although there is the protection of front/rear parking sensors and a reversing camera on this model. We benefited from autonomous parallel parking, press the button on dashboard, indicate your desired side to park and the Optima will automatically scan for a parking space that it will fit into and then it will direct you into what to do to next (i.e. select reverse/1st/etc.) – whilst it takes care of the steering to glide you into the space – that’s the theory but it can be a bit laggy and you might find it quicker to park yourself – it is standard so no real complaints.

The key instrumentation is clear with a TFT panel between the speedo and the rev counter. We commented that where on the speedo it clearly shows the 30 mph limit in red – the 70 mph is not so clearly labelled.

The Optima’s boot is cavernous and will accommodate up to 505 litres of luggage, the split fold seats lower by pulling levers located in the boot or on the tops of the respective rear seats. Under the boot floor you will find a full size spare tyre, which is a rarity these days with cost cutting measures such as fuel enhancing/co2 lowering measures. If you are looking for a bigger boot, then rivals such as the Skoda Superb at 565 litres offers more carrying capacity and also has the advantage of being a hatchback and not having the restriction of a boot aperture.

There is dual climate control, which despite the efforts of the all too brief summer weather was ice cold.

There are auto wipers, and auto on headlights, which disappointingly on this trim level were not xenon but you do you get attractive, LED daytime running lights.